An inspiring event that showcases global excellence and ambition in library service, the tour aims to share best practice, and inspire professionals across the world.

Working in Wales

The scene for the day was adeptly set by Alun Prescott, operations manager at Newport City Council and vice-chair of Society of Chief Librarians Wales. Alun celebrated the fantastic work already happening in libraries and within the wider community in Wales, highlighting the need for developing the Welsh libraries portal, and the migration to a single ‘public library management system,’ which is scheduled for 2019.

The new system will start the ball rolling for the development of more robust analytics and benchmarking, all very positive and exciting indeed.

Learning from developments overseas

Next was an update from much further afield. Geoff Strempel, the associate director of public library services at the State Library of South Australia, gave an overview of the innovative work happening across the pond. Gone are the days of a physical library card, engagement has been upped by the introduction of an app instead, so users can receive library updates instantly too.

Gone are the days of a physical library card

With this in mind, a central internet service provider (ISP) providing wifi to all the libraries has been contracted, achieving a seamless experience across all locations, with an overarching aim to create the opportunity to remove any physical barriers to library use.

User experience (UX) must be central

With so much activity happening online every day, your average library has a hard job competing, despite the quality resources worthy of sharing. Keynote speaker Jeff Penka, vice-president of product management at Zepheira, was on hand to discuss ideas surrounding the propagation of the data, and the need for a data strategy to do this successfully.

libraries need to start thinking of web presence in terms of data

Jeff explained that libraries need to start thinking of web presence in terms of data, and proposed thinking about the following questions: Are you managing your web presence effectively? Are you registered with Google business? Do you have a Wikipedia page? These are the best places to start linking data and making it searchable.

Library users as the focus

Our next keynote speaker, also from Australia, was Jane Cowell, the director of engagement and partnerships at the State Library of Queensland. She highlighted the need for better library UX and that the user, not the library, needs to be at the centre of everything.

Personalisation of library services for the library user is key.

Personalisation of library services for the library user is key. Netflix was used as a prime example, as it spends a fortune on its recommended engine to push content to the user. Privacy was an initial concern amongst the audience, but Jane immediately debunked any worries by suggesting that we should let users know what privacy is, what we will use their data for and let them choose. This is a commonly accepted practice, and something users are familiar with.

Technology can also help with collection management by changing the rules ad hoc to suit the user, for example, different borrowing periods (Jane queried why libraries across the world had only one borrowing period - as this is distinctly archaic now).

one of the key things learned and explored further at the event was that it was about people and not products

I have previously blogged about the report, but one of the key things learned and explored further at the event was that it was about people and not products, and that WHELF kept people central throughout the process. WHELF are looking to build on this great work by looking at piloting reciprocal borrowing, data management, and linking to the Jisc learning analytics project among other things.

In Wales we’re working on a digital strategy for post-16 education, which will help to pull together a lot of threads for library users, ensuring more joined-up digital services. We also offer consultancy from our subject specialist teams to ensure we explore issues and support our members through them, ensuring that any solution found is accessible to all.

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About the author

Account manager, Jisc

As an account manager I ensure that members experience a strong and personalised relationship with Jisc, enabling them to have ready access to our full range of products, services and support, whether inclusive as part of membership or in addition to any subscription package.

Additionally I champion our members' needs within Jisc, challenging with respect to members’ requirements so that member 'voice' shapes Jisc's operational and strategic priorities.